Reflections

A young girl on a climbing wall in Birmingham shows great courage, but also faith! She clearly trusts the rope that is her ‘security’, but also perhaps in her own ability and in her parents who were, no doubt, encouraging her.Is any of this misplaced?What then of the injunction of Jesus that we should become as children in our trust of God?

There had to be an image from Tasha and Adam’s wedding!Faith of one person in another.It strikes me that this is partly based on the experience of their relationship – “this works” – but also, and more importantly, based on a faith in that gift we call love.Of course, if we take note of words in John’s Gospel, we understand that love comes from God. Our experience of love between people, ourselves or others, is an encounter with God.I therefore need to include here an image of the folk shoppiing in Acocks Green.

Down amongst the shoppers, a rich mix of humanity, many showing the rough edges of a less than gentle life and some difficult relationships, I wonder ‘Where in this can I find God?’ The answer, for me, is in the simple capacity of each person to love. For all of us there are times when it is not easy, but when we do love,

This image, taken in Cromer, Norfolk a few years ago, says a lot about the faith we have in our own world, our own creation and those things with which we surround ourselves that give us security.It is such that we wish to maintain it at, almost, any cost.For some it is simply ‘mine’. For others it is what is ‘right’. For many within communities of faith it is all that is considered to be ‘given of God’.We always need to make the judgment:Is the castle ‘of God’ and to be defended, or is God in the waves, eating away at our arrogance and pride?

As, in our lives, we ‘make music’ with God it is often difficult to discern who is taking the lead. Very often we would consider that God ‘calls the tune’ and our part is to follow or fit in. Yet it is clear that God has given us free will and responsibility. In musical terms, he has put us on the conductor’s podium.Experience tells me that, as I take responsibility God will enhance and enrich – add in the harmony.This image, taken at a regional L’Arche gathering in 2007, is of a community member, with learning disabilities, playing the piano with one of the assistants. It is a creative partnership and it was hard to know who was taking the lead at any one time, who was making the tune and who was adding the harmony.